Spikers ousted from second round of NCAA tourney
When it was announced the Utah State University women’s volleyball team was put in the same NCAA Tournament bracket as BYU and the University of Utah, senior Heather Olmstead said she relished the chance to end both team’s season.
Unfortunately for the Aggies, the Utes (25-6 overall) had other plans, attacking a blistering .556 through two games en route to a 3-1 victory (30-21, 30-18, 26-30, 30-22) over the Aggies in the second round of the NCAA Tournament Friday night at Utah’s Crimson Court.
“Congratulations to the University of Utah,” USU Head Coach Burt Fuller said. “They played an astounding match.”
It was an astounding match for Utah’s middle blocker trio of Kim Turner, Katrena Ellett and Adrienne Bradley-Drake. The trio combined for 34 kills and hit .548 with only three attack errors.
“We had a lot of great passes and a lot of great digs that gave the middles a lot of chances to attack [USU’s] blockers,” Turner said.
In addition to hitting a high percentage (.357 for the match) and enjoying a height advantage over the Aggies, the Utes also had the luxury of playing the match on their home court after earning home-court advantage throughout the first two rounds of the NCAAs.
“I think Utah’s fans were great for them tonight,” Aggie middle blocker Michelle Matheson said. “Any time you can get people to support you, it’s the ultimate advantage.”
After losing in the second round of the NCAAs the past three years, Bradley-Drake said Utah’s first home advantage opportunity made a big difference.
“I think it helped us a lot,” she said. “We could have went to another place and played and accomplished the same goals, but having home-court advantage is awesome.”
Both the Aggies (20-11 for the season) and Utes came out firing in the first game. Midway through the game, both teams were hitting above .400 and matching each other shot-for-shot.
With the score 17-17, Utah turned to Turner and the sophomore responded with consecutive kills, giving the Utes a 19-17 lead. The two spikes proved to be the momentum changer the Aggies could ill-afford to concede as the Utes went on an 11-4 run to end the game.
Unfortunately for USU, things continued to snow-ball in the second game with the Utes stringing together five runs of at least three points and winning the second game in convincing fashion (30-18).
After outlasting BYU 3-2 Thursday night in a match that went nearly two hours and 30 minutes, the Aggies were unable to match Utah’s level of energy – at least emotionally, Olmstead said.
“I think last night took a lot out of us,” she said. “I’m not going to say that’s the reason we lost because we played good tonight.
“I think we could have pulled out a victory tonight, Utah just played better than us,” she said.
However, like it has the entire season, USU refused to quit.
Behind the hot play of Hailey MacKay (five kills in the game) and a more aggressive approach to serving, the Aggies jumped out to a 20-13 lead in the third game.
Employing a jump serve on several occasions, the Aggies were able to put the Utes on their heels offensively and disrupt their setting, 12/2/01 what about her? senior setter Chelsi Neves.
A 5-0 Utah run cut the Aggies advantage to 20-18, before a Lisa Borom ace which painted the line helped the Aggies regain momentum and eventually put the game away on three MacKay kills and a putaway by Matheson.
“We didn’t quit in this match after being two games down,” Fuller said. “We came out and played real hard in game three and still played real hard in game four.”
Like they did the entire match, the Utes got the ball to Turner in the fourth game and she responded with six kills (17 for the match) to help lead the Utes to the Sweet 16.
“Kim [Turner] was pretty unstoppable tonight,” Utah Head Coach Beth Launiere said. “I think that was an All-American performance by her.”
Borom and sophomore middle blocker Erin Cartwright paced the Aggies with 13 kills apiece on the night. Neves led the Aggies defensively with a match-high 15 digs.
Despite the loss, Fuller said the team has accomplished a lot and the future of Aggie volleyball looks bright.
“It was a great season,” he said. “Our team worked real hard and that was nice to see.”